Sunday 7 October – Relative Calm

I posted last week’s blog a little early as I mentioned that we had a fun event arranged and, for a similar reason, I am posting this week’s blog a little late!

Last Sunday night David and Belinda had arranged an end-of season BBQ and party to mark the conclusion of a busy and successful summer period. Belinda, and her husband Andrew, have been running the campsite on the shore of the Lac du Drennec for a similar length of time as we have owned Kergudon but, unlike us, they close over the winter and return to the UK.

Mercedes was kind enough to allow us to use her restaurant, Au Lac, for the event and we had invited a number of other business owners involved in the tourist industry with other friends. It was a fantastic evening and, if I say it myself, one of the better BBQs I have cooked, helped by some fabulous foods brought along by the attendees. A massive thank you to everyone who made it, and to Mercedes for providing the location and her usual generosity.

Having said ‘good bye’ to David’s aunt and uncle on the Thursday before, last Sunday we welcomed my own aunt and uncle for their very first visit to Kergudon and the BBQ was a great way to welcome them.

With my uncle and aunt here it may not have been the most productive week as we enjoyed some very leisurely breakfasts together and some super dinners both courtesy of David and our local eateries.

The weather all week has been exceptionally kind, with the exception of a wet and windy Saturday, and I did manage to cut the grass for the first time in a while, and if the forecast is to be believed I will be able to do so again next week.

With the dry weather I have been able to split another load of our stacked wood and added it to the temporary store – although we have not yet lit our own wood burner this year I suspect it will be soon.

The other major task I have started was (fanfare please) starting to clear out the existing man shed. This picture shows the state that it has become – on one end! I have only managed to do about a day and a half’s worth of work and, unsurprisingly, that hasn’t made a huge dent in the clearance! I should however be able to progress fairly rapidly this week.

Yesterday’s weather was pretty awful so I had to concentrate on some online work and update a number of the websites that we advertise through – seems a bit scary already looking at August 2019!

Today was another fabulous autumnal day, although again not very constructive. We joined one of David’s good friends who attends many of his classes in the gym, to celebrate his birthday with a dog walk – ours and his – around the Lac du Drennec and lunch at Au Lac (our 3rd visit this week!)

As previous years, they started using the water in the lake towards the end of the summer and, as it has been such a dry summer, the level has dropped incredibly. These images show the lake either side of the, normally, floating bridge. During our walk we saw our friend, Philippe Dolivet, fishing with some of his clients who actually caught a huge fish while we were watching – perhaps the level was so low there isn’t much room for the fish to hide!

Sadly, we said goodbye to my aunt and uncle on Thursday and we are now relative-free, although very pleasingly, both Granary and Hayloft welcomed new guests yesterday. Being on our own should mean that I have a more productive week next week and may just get the man shed emptied.